California’s First All-Electric Garbage Truck Headed to Sacramento, Equipped with Motiv All-Electric Powertrain
Leading the way for cleaner fleets in California, the City of Sacramento will soon be home to the State’s first all-electric automated left-side loader garbage truck.
The fundamental technology powering the Electric Refuse Vehicle (ERV) is Motiv Power Systems’ scalable and modular All-Electric Powertrain. The Class-8 vehicle will be built on a Crane Carrier chassis, and the body will be built by Loadmaster.
The City of Sacramento aims to run the ERV on residential and recycling routes and expects to save as much as 6,000 gallons of fuel per year. The Sacramento ERV will be one of only two all-electric refuse trucks in operation within North America, both powered by Motiv.
Tim Cook Says Apple Is Focusing on an Autonomous Car System
After years toiling away in secret on its car project, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has for the first time laid out exactly what the company is up to in the automotive market: It’s concentrating on self-driving technology.
“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in a June 5 interview on Bloomberg Television that amounted to his most detailed comments yet on Apple’s automotive plans. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important.” He likened the effort to “the mother of all AI projects,” saying it’s “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”
New Jersey Wants You to Call #77 if You See Someone Texting and Driving. But Pull Over First.
New Jersey drivers have been ratting out each other for distracted driving as part of a new enforcement campaign, and their attorney general couldn’t be happier.
Since April when the New Jersey State Police first invited people to call #77 to report distracted drivers, the state has received nearly 1,100 calls. Law enforcement officials have followed up by issuing summonses or mailing 632 warning letters to the vehicles’ owners, officials say.
Enforcing laws against texting and driving has been notoriously difficult, and law enforcement agencies around the country have been trying different approaches.
Automakers Diverge on How Fast to Deploy Automatic Braking
Big automakers are rushing to launch self-driving cars as early as 2021, but the industry's major players are moving slowly when it comes to widespread deployment of a less expensive crash prevention technology that regulators say could prevent thousands of deaths and injuries every year.
Nissan Motor Co Ltd said on Thursday it would make automatic braking systems standard on an estimated 1 million 2018 model cars and light trucks sold in the United States.
This includes high-volume models such as the Rogue and Rogue Sport compact sport utility vehicles, the Altima sedan, Murano and Pathfinder SUVs, LEAF electric car, Maxima sedan and Sentra small car.
Honda Reveals its Plans for Autonomous Vehicles
Honda has been one of the more cautious automakers when it comes to self-driving cars, and a recent study put the company at 15th out of 18 in terms of overall advancement.
At a media event this week, however, Honda shared more about its plans and set a target of 2025 for introducing vehicles with Level 4 autonomous driving capability.
Honda has already said that it intends to have vehicles capable of Level 3 freeway driving on the market by 2020, and is reiterating that goal today.
